Sci-Tech news

• Reinventing the International Center of Photography for the Selfie Age

  10-06-2016 22:32 via nytimes.com
  As is prepares to reopen in a new downtown space, the center is trying to define what image-making means today.
  
  Read more

• As game makers try new tactics, a turning point for E3

  10-06-2016 22:16
  
  What's that in the sky? Is it a sign of E3's future? Or simply another hype-generating monstrosity?
  
  Read more

• Gawker files for bankruptcy, to sell itself to Ziff Davis

  10-06-2016 22:15
  
  Gawker is filing for bankruptcy protection and will sell itself rather than pay $140 million to pro wrestler Hulk Hogan.
  
  Read more

• Apple's next big challenge: Making Siri smarter

  10-06-2016 22:14
  
  Apple's Siri made a big splash when the wisecracking digital assistant debuted on the iPhone five years ago. But as other tech giants jockey to build intelligent "chat bots" and voice-controlled home systems capable of more challenging artificial-intelligence feats, Siri at times no longer seems cutting edge.
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Aerospace firm successfully tests solar-powered aircraft

  10-06-2016 22:13
  
  A test pilot successfully flew a solar-powered prototype aircraft on Friday for a company that envisions manufacturing a fleet of drones to provide aerial internet service for an estimated 4 billion people worldwide.
  
  Read more

• Supporting pollinators could have big payoff for Texas cotton farmers

  10-06-2016 22:12
  
  According to a new study by The University of Texas at Austin, increasing the diversity of pollinator species, including bees, flies and butterflies, can dramatically increase cotton production. The researchers estimate that in South Texas, the region they studied, increasing the diversity of pollinators could boost cotton production by up to 18 percent, yielding an increase in annual revenue of more than $1.1 million.
  
  Read more

• NJIT to participate in historic first ship-to-shore drone delivery

  10-06-2016 21:41
  
  A team of medical personnel, emergency management specialists and drone technology experts, including from NJIT's New Jersey Innovation Institute (NJII), will conduct the first ship-to-shore drone delivery in the U.S. on June 23 on the New Jersey coastline.
  
  Read more

• Cancer-causing virus strikes genetically vulnerable horses

  10-06-2016 21:34
  
  Sarcoid skin tumors are the most common form of cancer in horses, but little is known about why the papillomavirus behind them strikes some horses and not others. A new study by an international research group led by scientists at the Baker Institute for Animal Health at Cornell's College of Veterinary Medicine shows genetic differences in immune function between horses partly accounts for these differences. The study, published in the International Journal of Cancer, mirrors findings in humans,
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Generating unclonable patterns to fight counterfeiting

  10-06-2016 21:32
  
  In a multinational collaboration, researchers from the Universities of Luxembourg, Ljubljana and Vienna have developed a new method to produce unique reflecting patterns that can be applied on valuable objects. As these patterns can't be cloned or copied, they could be used to identify products unambiguously in order to avoid counterfeiting.
  
  Read more

• Discovery of molecular protection linked to a degenerative neuromuscular disease

  10-06-2016 21:30
  
  Knowledge of the minute details of the proteins that are linked to diseases is crucial if we are to discover therapeutic targets and thus pave the way for possible treatments. Such knowledge gains even more relevance when dealing with rare diseases that have received little attention and for which no treatments are available, such as the case of Kennedy's disease. This week Xavier Salvatella, ICREA researcher at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona), in collaboration with sci
  
  Read more

• A new way to control oxygen for electronic properties

  10-06-2016 21:29
  
  Hotel managers and materials scientists have a lot in common—they both need to find a way to control properties by managing vacancies.
  
  Read more

• Coal ash ponds found to leak toxic materials

  10-06-2016 21:28
  
  A Duke University study of coal ash ponds near 21 power plants in five Southeastern U.S. states has found evidence that nearby surface waters and groundwater are consistently and lastingly contaminated by the unlined ponds.
  
  Read more

• Study finds native Olympia oysters more resilient to ocean acidification

  10-06-2016 21:25
  
  Native Olympia oysters, which once thrived along the Pacific Northwest coast until over-harvesting and habitat loss all but wiped them out, have a built-in resistance to ocean acidification during a key shell-building phase after spawning, according to a newly published study.
  
  Read more

• Climate change implicated in France floods: study

  10-06-2016 21:15
  
  Torrential rains which caused flooding in France recently bore the unmistakable fingerprint of climate change, according to research to be submitted to a scientific journal next week.
  
  Read more

• Astronomers Study T-Tauri Stars in the Chamaeleon Star-Forming Region

  10-06-2016 20:54 via scitechdaily.com
  
  New research on young (T-Tauri) stars in the Chamaeleon and Rho Ophiuchus star-forming regions has determined their ages as being between about five – six million years old, as well as determining other properties. A newborn star typically goes through four stages of adolescence. It begins life as a protostar still enshrouded in its natal […]
  The post Astronomers Study T-Tauri Stars in the Chamaeleon Star-Forming Region appeared first on SciTech Daily.
  
  Read more

• New Horizons Spacecraft Views Jagged Shores of Pluto’s Highlands

  10-06-2016 20:37 via scitechdaily.com
  
  NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft zooms in Pluto’s great ice plains and Krun Macula. This enhanced color view from NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft shows the southeastern portion of Pluto’s great ice plains, where at lower right the plains border rugged, dark highlands informally named Krun Macula. (Krun is the lord of the underworld in the Mandaean […]
  The post New Horizons Spacecraft Views Jagged Shores of Pluto’s Highlands appeared first on SciTech Daily.
  
  Read more

• X-ray snapshot of butterfly wings reveals underlying physics of color

  10-06-2016 20:00
  
  A team of physicists that visualized the internal nanostructure of an intact butterfly wing has discovered two physical attributes that make those structures so bright and colorful.
  
  Read more

• The primate brain is 'pre-adapted' to face potentially any situation

  10-06-2016 20:00
  
  Scientists have shown how the brain anticipates all of the new situations that it may encounter in a lifetime by creating a special kind of neural network that is "pre-adapted" to face any eventuality. This emerges from a new neuroscience study published in PLOS Computational Biology.
  
  Read more

• New mathematics accurately captures liquids and surfaces moving in synergy

  10-06-2016 20:00
  
  Gas bubbles in a glass of champagne, thin films rupturing into tiny liquid droplets, blood flowing through a pumping heart and crashing ocean waves—although seemingly unrelated, these phenomena have something in common: they can all be mathematically modeled as interface dynamics coupled to the Navier-Stokes equations, a set of equations that predict how fluids flow.
  
  Read more

• Milky Way now hidden from one-third of humanity

  10-06-2016 20:00
  
  The Milky Way, the brilliant river of stars that has dominated the night sky and human imaginations since time immemorial, is but a faded memory to one third of humanity and 80 percent of Americans, according to a new global atlas of light pollution produced by Italian and American scientists.
  
  Read more

• Globalization made economic production more vulnerable to climate change

  10-06-2016 20:00
  
  The susceptibility of the global economic network to workers' heat-stress has doubled in the last decade, a new study published in the journal Science Advances finds. The analysis by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and Columbia University shows for the first time how enhanced connectivity of the global network of supply can amplify production losses, as these losses can be spread more easily across countries.
  
  Read more

• Gawker Files for Bankruptcy After Hulk Hogan Legal Battle

  10-06-2016 19:19 via nbcnews.com
  
  Gawker Media filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in New York on Friday.
  
  Read more

• New elements on the periodic table are named

  10-06-2016 18:56 via rss.cnn.com
  
  Meet nihonium (Nh), moscovium (Mc), tennessine (Ts) and oganesson (Og), the newest elements on the periodic table to receive names. But don't get too attached to the nomenclature for these elements, formerly known by their respective atomic numbers 113, 115, 117 and 118. The names are on a five-month probation before things are made official.
  
  Read more

• Are your eyes really 'bigger than your stomach'? Studies put it to the test

  10-06-2016 18:56 via rss.cnn.com
  
  Here's an experiment to test and tease your senses: Next time your partner or friend is making you dinner, put on a blindfold before the meal is served. How does not being able to see affect your dining experience?
  
  Read more

• GM to add 700 technical jobs in Ontario, Canada

  10-06-2016 17:29
  
  General Motors will add at least 700 engineering, software development and urban mobility jobs at three sites in Canada.
  
  Read more

• Popcorn-like fossils provide evidence of environmental impacts on species numbers

  10-06-2016 17:28
  
  The number of species that can exist on Earth depends on how the environment changes, according to new research led by the University of Southampton.
  
  Read more

• Who's the best-equipped superhero? Student research settles 'superpower showdown'

  10-06-2016 17:26
  
  Students at the University of Leicester have been using simple calculations to explain the feasibility of the powers behind of some of the most prominent comic book superheroes known around the world.
  
  Read more

• Someone is going to get rich selling cameras for virtual reality. But who?

  10-06-2016 16:20
  
  If virtual reality lives up to its hype, someone is destined to get rich from building the medium's first mass-market camera.
  
  Read more

• Tesla denies safety problems with Model S suspensions

  10-06-2016 16:08
  
  Electric car maker Tesla Motors is denying allegations that there are safety problems with its vehicle suspensions.
  
  Read more

• Tesla denies pressuring customers to hush up complaints (Update)

  10-06-2016 16:08
  
  Tesla denied Friday putting pressure on customers to stay quiet over problems in its luxury all-electric cars amid questions about the strength of the suspensions in the popular Model S.
  
  Read more

• Aerospace firm unveils solar-powered aircraft (Update)

  10-06-2016 16:08
  
  A solar-powered aircraft that can be flown with or without a human on board has been unveiled at a New York site that once made military fighter jets.
  
  Read more

• Aerospace firm is unveiling solar-powered aircraft

  10-06-2016 16:08
  
  A solar-powered aircraft that can be flown with or without a human on board is being unveiled at a New York site that once made fighter jets for the military.
  
  Read more

• Activity of nerve cell in freely moving animal analyzed by new robot microscope system

  10-06-2016 16:03
  
  Researchers from Osaka University and Tohoku University have developed a novel robot microscope system that automatically tracks a freely moving small animal and manipulates its brain activity with "projection mapping."
  
  Read more

• El Nino made a nuisance of itself in 2015

  10-06-2016 16:01
  
  The frequency of nuisance tidal flooding in many U.S. cities increased as predicted for the 2015 meteorological year, from May 2015 to April 2016, according to a new NOAA report.
  
  Read more

• World's-first compact transceiver for terahertz wireless communication using 300-GHz band

  10-06-2016 16:00
  
  Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation, Fujitsu, and the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology have cooperatively developed the world's-first compact terahertz wireless transceiver using the 300-GHz band and experimentally demonstrated that it can transmit data at transmission rate of 40 gigabits per second through multiplex transmission using orthogonal polarization.
  
  Read more

• U.S. Takes Key Step in Ceding Control of Internet Addresses

  10-06-2016 15:30 via nbcnews.com
  
  The U.S. government is taking a key step in relinquishing control of the internet's addressing system, fulfilling a promise made in the 1990s.
  
  Read more

• New theory to explain why some fault segments remain quiet between quakes

  10-06-2016 15:24
  
  (Phys.org)—A pair of researchers with the California Institute of Technology has developed a new theory to explain why some fault segments, such as parts of the San Andreas Fault, remain seismically silent between quakes. In their paper published in the journal Science, Junle Jiang and Nadia Lapusta describe their theory and how they tested it.
  
  Read more

• Review: Kill off your Wi-Fi dead zones with the Eero system

  10-06-2016 15:20
  
  People have a love-hate relationship with their home Wi-Fi networks.
  
  Read more

• Goldfish submarines and musical cats at Tokyo toy show

  10-06-2016 15:17
  
  Is your life lacking a mini-submarine for your goldfish tank? Or do you really need some musical cats to brighten your day? Never fear, Japan has just the thing.
  
  Read more

• Should You Worry About 32 Million Hacked Twitter Passwords?

  10-06-2016 15:06 via nbcnews.com
  
  Yet another security outfit is reporting that millions of passwords — for Twitter accounts — are floating around the dark side of the internet.
  
  Read more

• Using CRISPR as a recording device

  10-06-2016 14:40
  
  (Phys.org)—A small team of researchers at Harvard University has taken another look at CRISPR and has found that it can be used as a recording device of sorts, keeping track of when and where a given bacterium has been exposed to different viruses. In their paper published in the journal Science, the team describes their study, their findings and the ways such natural recordings might be useful.
  
  Read more

• Legendary Silicon Valley 'Founding Father' Dead at 84

  10-06-2016 14:11 via nbcnews.com
  
  The firm that bears his name went on to fund some of the biggest names of the internet era, including Google and Amazon.
  
  Read more

• India ministry rejects Google's Street View plans

  10-06-2016 13:55
  
  Google's plans to introduce its popular "Street View" service in India have hit a roadblock after the interior ministry Friday said it had rejected an application from the tech giant, although the government could yet approve it.
  
  Read more

• Astronaut Ron Garan says space travel for all will make the Earth a better place

  10-06-2016 13:54
  
  There is a small but growing set of people who have had the opportunity to see the Earth as a planet, and view its changing seasons and weather patterns from above. Astronauts are a rare breed: men, and, increasingly, women, who have orbited the Earth and seen it suspended below them as a canvas of colour and movement. Astronauts who have gone even further have seen it turn into the "pale blue dot" described so emotively by Carl Sagan.
  
  Read more

• Reseachers developing a technique combining the use of nanoparticles and bioremediation to decontaminate polluted soils

  10-06-2016 13:52
  
  The Basque Institute of Agricultural Research and Development Neiker-Tecnalia is currently exploring a strategy to remedy soils contaminated by organic compounds containing chlorine (organochlorine compounds). The innovative process consists of combining the application of zero-iron nanoparticles with bioremediation techniques. The companies Ekotek and Dinam, the UPV/EHU-University of the Basque Country and Gaiker-IK4 are also participating in this project known as NANOBIOR.
  
  Read more

• Fin24.com | MTN shares soar after it agrees to Nigeria fine payment

  10-06-2016 13:52
  
  MTN shares have risen as much as 21% on the JSE after the company said it will pay 330 billion naira (R24.94bn) over three years to the Nigerian government to settle a fine.
  
  Read more

• Watch: Uber Expands Its Ride-Booking Service

  10-06-2016 13:42 via abcnews.go.com
  
  Uber now allows a 30 minute to 30 day advance booking option for users with Uber business accounts.
  
  Read more

• Fin24.com | Tech firms dominate top 100 brands

  10-06-2016 13:28
  
  Tech companies have tightened their grip on the world’s most valuable brands, an international survey has showed.
  
  Read more

• How might drone racing drive innovation?

  10-06-2016 13:20
  
  Over the past 15 years, drones have progressed from laboratory demonstrations to widely available toys. Technological improvements have brought ever-smaller components required for flight stabilization and control, as well as significant improvements in battery technology. Capabilities once restricted to military vehicles are now found on toys that can be purchased at Wal-Mart.
  
  Read more

• Wendy's Credit Card Breach Is Worse Than First Reported

  10-06-2016 13:14 via nbcnews.com
  
  Wendy's said it had discovered additional instances of unusual credit card activity at some of its franchise-operated restaurants.
  
  Read more

Follow @NewslockSciTech on Twitter!